Sunday, January 31, 2016

50 Year Flashback: SMASH! No.1

Half a Century ago this week Odhams Press launched the second title in what would soon collectively be known as their 'Power Comics' weeklies. I enjoyed all of them but Smash! was the clear winner for me, with its content being a great balance of humour, adventure, and Marvel reprint. The Marvel material wouldn't actually begin until issue 16 (when The Hulk arrived) but the contents of issue 1 were still a great line up. Here's what Smash No.1 contained...Page 1: Cover by Leo Baxendale promoting the free gift.Pages 2/3: Ronnie Rich. Art by Gordon Hogg.Pages 4/5: The Ghost Patrol. Art by Gerry Embleton. (Reprint of The Phantom Patrol from Swift.)Pages 6/7: Bad Penny by Leo Baxendale.Pages 8: Percy's Pets. Art by Stan McMurtry.Pages 9: Ad for Smash! No.2. Art possibly by Ron Spencer.Pages 10/11: Brian's Brain. Art by Bert Vandeput.Pages 12/13: Space Jinx. Art by Brian Lewis.Pages 14/15: The Nervs. Art by Graham Allen.Pages 16/17: Queen of the Seas by Ken Reid.Page 18: The Tellybugs. Art by George Parlett.Page 19: Mister Knowall actvity/puzzle page.Pages 20/21: The Swots and the Blots. Art possibly by Ron Spencer.Pages 22/23: Charlie's Choice. Art by Brian Lewis.Page 24 (back page): Grimly Feendish by Leo Baxendale.As you can see, Smash! had quite a collection of top artists of the day. As time went on, artists would be changed around or replaced but Smash! always had some quality people working on its pages. To correct a few myths: Leo Baxendale never drew The Swots and the Blots until 1969, the year he totally revamped the strip for the second series of Smash! published by IPC. Nor did he ever draw The Nervs, which was mainly by Graham Allen and later by Ken Reid. Anyway, enough from me. Here's a selection of pages from that very first issue of 50 years ago. One of the best comics of the 1960s....

Swots and Blots. Art possibly by Ron Spencer.

Charlie's Choice. Art: Brian Lewis.

Finally, here's the house ad for Smash! No.1 that appeared in that week's issue of Wham!

11 comments:

Interestingly, the idea of Space Jinx came from Ken Reid! He suggested it at his own initiative and even provided a finished introductory 2-page set in b/w. The reasons behind editorial decision not to use it and give illustrator’s duties to Brian Lewis are a mystery to me. But Odhams did send Ken his check for the work.

Although Ken was busy as it were drawing ‘Frankie Stein’ and ‘Jasper the Grasper’ for Wham! at the time, he threw quite a few story ideas at Odhams when they told him about their plans to launch yet another comic. In addition to ‘Space Jinx’, he came up with ‘Percy Pluvver Animal Luvver’, which eventually became ‘Percy’s Pets’ in Smash!, drawn by Brian Lewis, and ‘Davy Jones’ which Odhams rejected. IPC found the sketches in their archives nearly a decade later and asked Ken to draw two sets of ‘Davy Jones’ Locker’ that can be found in Buster Book of Spooky Stories 1976.

Fascinating to hear about Ken Reid's early involvement with Space Jinx. For what it's worth Brian Lewis was subsequently paid as scripter and artist. On Ghost/Phantom Patrol, it's not always easy to tell (and supposedly they did work together on occasion, but I'm pretty sure the series was drawn by Ron's brother Gerry.

I must admit I never liked the strip and presumably it wasn't popular with readers originally but I recall they had letters asking for its return after it was dropped. I felt the scripts often let it down.

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Established in 2006, BLIMEY! is dedicated to British comics past and present. Images are copyright their respective publishers and are only used here for review purposes.

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About Me

I work as a professional humour comics artist and writer and have been freelancing full time since 1984, creating many characters such as TOM THUG, PETE AND HIS PIMPLE, COMBAT COLIN, BRICKMAN, ROBO-CAPERS, DEREK THE TROLL, SUBURBAN SATANISTS and others.
I've freelanced for IPC, Marvel Comics, Egmont, Panini,D.C. Thomson, and many others, covering the comics field from originated characters to licensed properties, pre-school to adult on comics such as BUSTER, OINK!, BEANO, DANDY, TRANSFORMERS, SONIC THE COMIC, TOXIC, VIZ, CiTV TELLYTOTS, LEGO ADVENTURES, HERMAN HEDNING, SWEET FA, ACTION FORCE, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, RAMPAGE, LUCKY BAG COMIC, SWIFTSURE, WARLOCK, WHITE DWARF, ACES WEEKLY, THE DAREDEVILS, THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL, and many more.
My recent comics work has included:'Team Toxic' for Egmont's TOXIC magazine'Postman Prat', 'Kid Cops' and 'The Dark Newt' for THE DANDY'Rasher', 'Pup Parade', 'Lord Snooty' and 'Ivy the Terrible' for THE BEANO.
'The Daft Dimension' for DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE.